Taxpayers to pay former senator Mary Jo Fisher's legal bill

POLICE have been ordered to pay more than $80,000 in legal fees to former senator Mary Jo Fisher over a failed shoplifting prosecution.

Ms Fisher, who resigned from the Senate last month, was found not guilty last November of the shoplifting charge by Adelaide Magistrate Kym Boxall.

Mr Boxall found the former Liberal senator was in a "dissociative state" brought on by a panic attack when she left a Frewville supermarket without paying for groceries in December 2010.

Ms Fisher was released without conviction after pleading guilty to an assault charge, in that she used unlawful force against a female security guard who tried to stop her as she left the supermarket.

Ms Fisher was represented at trial by leading Adelaide QC Michael Abbott and made a claim for reimbursement of legal costs of $156,000.

Magistrate Boxall today ruled that Ms Fisher should receive part of her costs because an offer by her legal team to plead guilty to assault in exchange for the shoplifting charge being dropped was rejected by senior prosecutors.

"(The trial) led to the same resolution of the case as the two prosecutors handling it had foreseen in their pre-trial consideration of the charges," Mr Boxall found.

Mr Boxall said police prosecutors were aware from the earliest stages of the case that Ms Fisher's mental health and depression would be central to the trial.

He also rejected a submission by police that Ms Fisher was not entitled to costs above the usual scale because it was a "run of the mill" trial.

"I do not think the prosecution themselves found the trial to be a `run of the mill' trial," Mr Boxall said.

Mr Boxall said the trial created significant public interest and media attention and its outcome had serious consequences for Ms Fisher.

Police were ordered to pay total costs of $82,838 including GST and Mr Boxall also ordered that they pay $3000 costs for Mr Abbott QC's appearance in the argument over costs.